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Our legal system has two basic classes of crimes, those that require a mental state and those that do not.
Most crimes require some sort of evil intent to commit the crime coupled with some sort of action. As the Supreme Court explained most crimes require an evil-meaning mind with an evil...

A young woman was in a country bar. Two men invited her to go out to their truck to smoke some weed. She left with them.
Her family was concerned because she was missing. But the police delayed investigating it because people kept reporting having seen her at the bar after she been ...

To be guilty of the crime of theft in Alabama, a person must have the intent to have stolen property.
So if I go to Walmart and I put a bag of dog food under my cart and then leave the store having paid for everything but the bag of dog food because I forgot it was there and I committed a ...

If the police smell marijuana coming from your home that gives them what is known as probable cause to believe there is criminal activity going on in your house.
Probable cause means that based upon the facts and circumstances known to the officer at that time, he would have information that...

There are a lot of questions and confusion about when a person is justifiably acting in self-defense under Alabama laws.
If I was, to sum up, the law in one word, it would be reasonableness.
Alabama self-defense law looks to whether the person acted reasonably to defend themselves.
So,...

Law schools spend three years teaching law students how to think like a lawyer.
Heres how to do it in three steps:
I
First, understand what a true fact is and know how to dispute its meaning.
To a lawyer, a fact is something that is not in dispute. When something is accepted as a fact, l...

Of course, being arrested for anything is never a good thing. But, is sometimes being arrested for drug paraphernalia can provide a partial defense to more serious charges.
For example, is not uncommon for people to be charged with possession of marijuana for other than personal use. Lets say ...

The answer to this, like most legal questions, is, it depends.
There are some circumstances under which the loss or destruction of evidence may result in a criminal case being dismissed by the court or abandoned by the prosecution. However, the fact that certain evidence no longer exists does...

The real question is whether one witness can prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that someone committed the crime.
The answer is yes.
To give an unpleasant (but true) example, when I was in the District Attorneys office we had a rape case. The evidence consisted solely of the testimony of th...

In Alabama, you can go to jail for carrying a concealed slingshot.
Thats right. Under Alabama law, f youre carrying a slingshot ” concealed about your person” you must be fined no less than $50 or more than $500 and you can be imprisoned in the county jail and sentenced to hard labor for the...

If you're a suspect in a criminal case, the police may ask you to take a polygraph test.
Ultimately, you should speak with a lawyer before you make any decision but in the meantime, there are three reasons why you might not want to take a polygraph test.
Results of a polygraph test are al...

The United States Supreme Court said in the case of Alabama vs. Shelton, a court cannot impose a suspended sentence that will result in a person actually going to jail unless that person was represented by an attorney when he was prosecuted for the original case.
The Supreme Court's reasoning wa...

In Alabama is it illegal to wear a fake beard in church?
Under Alabama law, if someone (without lawful authority) disturbs any lawful assembly or meeting of persons they have committed the crime of disorderly conduct. A person who is convicted of this crime faces up to three months in jail and ...

III. Theft of property, Third Degree.
If you steal something with a negative value, something that's worth no money, or worth less than no money, could you go to prison?
Say I leave my Debit card on my desk. The card is worthless since I have a negative $2000 balance on it. Now, Dumb Dan co...

Everything you want to know about Sodomy in Alabama but were afraid to ask.
What is the legal definition of sodomy in Alabama?
Alabama does not independently define sodomy as a crime but defines criminal actions involving deviant sexual intercourse as sodomy crimes.
Deviant sexual intercou...

In Alabama is it a crime to offer somebody money to not press charges?
The answer is, I‘m going to give you an example, and you're going to tell me if the person is guilty or not.
Let's say I have a friend Knuckles Malone, and Knuckles gets mad and smashes his neighbor's windshield. The next da...

Years back I had a case where a woman was with a drunken male friend. She was the driver of a car and they stopped late one night at a Wal-Mart. The man got out of the car and attempted to kidnap and rape a woman. My client was also charged with attempted kidnapping and attempted rape. I will tel...

1. What is expungement?
Expungement is the process by which an arrest record can be sealed or “wiped clean” from one's record.
2. If my records are expunged, what does it mean?
It means the information pertaining to the case, is no longer available to the public.Information maintained by the s...

“These recoveries and testimonials are not an indication of future results. Every case is different, and regardless of what friends, family, or other individuals may say about what a case is worth, each case must be evaluated on its own facts and circumstances as they apply to the law. The valuation of a case depends on the facts, the injuries, the
jurisdiction, the venue, the witnesses, the parties, and the testimony, among other factors. Furthermore, no representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.”